08/10/2010 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of a Public Hearing On Proposed Charter Review Revisions 8-10-10 Page 11 What this is saying is only the first ordinances are subject to a referendum of the voters. Why is that? Well, if you don't like the idea of building a police station, when this Council passed an ordinance to proceed with the building of the police station, that was when the citizens should uprise, circulate their petitions and put that on the ballot. If they don't do it, the next ordinances are going to be to advertise for bids, to enter into contracts and to get multiple permits going from the State, the EPA, all of which require ordinances. Once you enter into contracts, once you authorize a contract, once you appropriate money, to do a referendum on those subsequent ordinances would be illegal because you have already committed to somebody to do something. So, to have a referendum on only one aspect of a project for a capital improvement makes no sense. It would be illegal. It would be entangled in legal process. The Charter was adopted in the very beginning by the founding fathers to limit the right of referendum to protect it on those types of issues. That's all this amendxnent is doing, is clarifying that public improvements which have multiple ordinances, you can only do referendum on the first ordinance on that. That's what that one is all about. That is all of the proposed amendments. This meeting is meant to discuss just those. These are the ones that the Charter Review Commission has mandated to go on to the ballot. They will go on the ballot. It's not a matter of us debating whether they should or shouldn't, it's a matter of debating the merits of each of the ordinances and making a decision at the voting booth in November when you have the opportunity to exercise your right. Council President Buckholtz thanked Mr. Diemert. He does not remember much of what he learned in Civics in 6th grade, but he wishes Mr. Diemert was there to teach him this. He is glad to have learned it tonight. The audience applauded. Public Portion of Hearing Council President Buckholtz stated before we proceed, I would like to take a moment to explain the process. We usually bring this up at all meetings, so it's nothing special for tonight. It's just a reminder of a few issues of decorum. We ask each person that would like to speak to come up to the podiutn and give their name and address so we can get it into the record. You will have 3- 5 minutes to speak. We would like to limit that so everybody gets a chance to be heard. One of the things that we find often happens in these situations, if multiple people have the same point of view, it would be nice if you could just stand up and be recognized. When someone makes a comment you could raise your hand and stand up and say I would like to just add my name and address to that comment. That way you are on the record as supporting that viewpoint without